Chapter 2
Fears "Oh my god, Cat! Cat!" Tori screamed, jumping on top of the lunch table. "Heh heh wheeee!" Cat joyfully cried, not realizing the danger she was in. "Cat, stop it right now! Get back here!" Andre got up next. The table only had enough space for the two of them, so the rest of their group got up and watched as Cat floated towards the sky without any conscious control. Other students at Hollywood Arts started noticing Cat's ability at work. It was impossible not to, with Tori, Beck, and Andre yelling for Cat to come back down. This situation was bad enough without others finding out about the strange things that the seven of them could do now. But Cat probably had it worse than all of them, because she was so... incautious and carefree that she could barely control this, as much as they hated saying it, "power" of hers. Cat was almost a meter off the ground when Tori leaped and grabbed her ankles. This caused Cat a little pain, but Tori successfully weighed her down and the surprise must have scared Cat's power away because they both fell. Andre, Beck, and Robbie helped them up and they all kept a hand on Cat's shoulders to prevent her from taking off again from a little excitement. Just from seeing a new app for SkyStore on her phone, Cat started giggling like usual and then she started to float from her seat, and when Robbie noticed that she wasn't sitting down, Cat started floating higher and higher. Now that they had her weighed down though, there were several people watching them like gophers fresh from their holes. "Cat, you have to make sure you don't fly off like that." Tori warned her. "But I didn't mean to I just, I saw the advertisement and I-" Despite Cat's pleading, Tori reminded her of the firm rules. "Cat, we told you before, if you get distracted and start using your power, you could fly off into space. Especially if you're alone!" "Yeah, and we've got a problem fellas, look." Andre pointed to the students surrounding them. Boys and girls who had seen Cat levitating. There weren't a lot of them, but enough that it looked like there was a performance going on. Andre and Beck were on crowd control, and Andre started talking to the crowd while Tori and Robbie searched for an escape route. "Alright folks, what you just saw was a magic trick we've been working on! You can't go around tellin' everybody about it, its part of our act for the upcoming talent show! Now please, just go back to eating ya' lunches." A female voice broke through the crowd's amazement, short and astute, "Wait a minute, I saw that girl talking about something out loud! She didn't look like she was practicing anything!" Someone else in the crowd agreed, a male voice, assertive and annoying. "Yeah, and why did you guys have to tackle her down like that, huh!?" "Please!" Beck shouted, "This is nothing to be concerned about. We just messed up a stunt and started earlier than we were supposed to! You guys just need to pretend you didn't see anything." but even the popular face of their group wasn't enough to convince the crowd of students. Beck's fake testimony drew in more people, more girls who were attracted to Beck and some guys who recognized Cat. Andre knelt down to whisper to Tori, "We need to get out of here, people are getting suspicious and my ears are killing me with all this noise." Tori nodded, "Right, but how do we get out of here?" They looked at Beck who was fighting a losing PR battle with the crowd. His power could help them out of this, create a distraction big enough for them to get out of sight. As more intrusive questions were getting tossed around by the mob of people who had witnessed Cat's "stunt", the group of friends banded together and agreed on a plan that would, hopefully, not put anyone in the hospital. Without any warning, a fire spurted from the table that Beck and Andre were standing on. Tori shouted, "Fire!" to get everyone's attention, and the fire grew slightly and spooked several witnesses. Andre and Beck got off the table, while Robbie and Cat were the first two to escape the crowd, followed quickly by Tori, Andre, and Beck. Jade was still getting her lunch when she saw her boyfriend and her acquaintances running away, so she grabbed her lunch tray and jogged after them without paying. Together, the six of them fled the Asphalt Cafe and they ran to the Blackbox Theater, and lucky they were to find the theater empty because there was no class scheduled there. Everyone except Jade was out of breath when they arrived, so Jade opened the floor. "What happened, I just went to go and get lunch and then we're running away like scared children?" Between rough breaths, Beck answered, "It wasn't on purpose, we..." "I did it again." Cat squeaked, "It was an accident." Robbie looked at cat with puppy-like eyes. He couldn't bear to see her so sad, but Jade seemed indifferent on the whole matter. The day after the meteor shower, when they were all trying to put together what had happened to them, Trina walked into the bathroom and found Cat upside-down, floating on the ceiling against her will. Cat had to remain relaxed, bored really, to not suddenly take off. When she was indoors she would be protected by the ceiling at least, but they all agreed that for Cat's safety it was best not to test how high or for how long she could fly. Somehow they had gotten her to understand why her power couldn't be tested like Tori's or Andre's, all thanks to Beck's power. "Hurh, I knew it was a bad idea to go to school." Jade told them. "I can't believe that just happened! We almost lost Cat, and all those people saw it. Then Beck lights the table on fire and we have to run away! We're going to be the talk of the school for months!" complained Tori, regaining her breath. "Well whose idea was it to come back to school?" "I didn't, my mom wouldn't believe what I told her about us!" "Come to think of it, what are we gonna' tell our parents?" asked Robbie, "I mean, Jade and I didn't get any powers so we're covered. But Beck can light things on fire, what if he sets his house on fire?" "I don't think my parents would like that." Beck replied sarcastically. "I would." Jade added in a quiet voice, her eyes wandering on the floor. Andre gave Jade a brief, confused stare before he answered Robbie's question, "I don't know about you guys, but my parents are out of the country and don't need to know about this just yet. Even if my grandma did believe me, she'd find a way to make this situation worse than it already is! I'm not gonna' tell her!" and Tori wasn't satisfied with that answer. "After today, what if the school starts sending letters home?" "First things first guys, we agreed we can't show off our powers or else we'll start gathering too much attention." Beck inputted. "I think today's proof of that." Andre agreed. "We can't keep going to school like this, our parents won't believe us if we tell'em, and if we show'em they'll probably have us put in hospitals. I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to get studied or put in a room where they show you pictures of animals and ask ya' what ya' see! I'd freak out in there!" Andre started shivering at the thought of being locked up somewhere and given a shrink to talk to, being force-fed meals and not being able to use the bathroom or talk to other people without supervision. The possibility lurked over everyone except Jade and Robbie, who were lucky enough to not receive these dangerous and irritating powers. Tori tried to calm Andre, "Andre, come on, I don't think our parents would throw us in some kind of mental ward. I mean, what kind of hospital treats this kind of thing?" "I don't know and I don't want to find out!" Andre argued, "You remember that skit from ICarly about the space program where they all started developing space madness? I'm just like that, I get all wonky in tight spaces." "I thought that only happened when you can't get your feelings out." asked Robbie a bit too familiarly. "Yes, Rob, that too." Andre replied, agitated. Tori pulled out her cellphone and started dialing her sister's number, "Guys, I'm going to call Trina and have her meet us here before next class. We've got to get out of here and figure out what to do, and I know that most of you can drive, but we should travel as a group and stay together as much as possible. Who knows what might happen to any one of us, and we're the only ones who know how these powers work." "We don't exactly know how these powers work. I mean we know that they do work, but like I said before, we haven't thought about how many things we can do with them. " suggested Jade. Beck turned to her and frowned, "Jade, we're not going to use these powers irresponsibly." "I never said you have to Beck. Maybe I did get a power of my own and it just hasn't activated yet? We were all there on the day of the meteor shower when Miss Brain-Phone, Happy-Floating-Cat, you, and Andre got their powers. Why would it skip Robbie and I?" "Brain-phone?" Tori felt her head, dumbstruck by Jade's nickname. "My name's Cat!" Cat blurted, earning more blank glances from her friends. She waved at them and went back to quietly listening. "Maybe whatever caused this knew better than to give The Grinch's girlfriend and a geek superpowers." said Rex, finally speaking up from Robbie's side. When Jade glared at him, Rex shook as if he was actually frightened by her. Robbie examined his puppet friend, surprised both by the fact that Rex was so quiet during lunch and that he had spoken so abruptly. "You know Rex... now that you're alive, I bet I could think of a number of things that you wouldn't enjoy very much." said Jade in a low, sleazy voice as she moseyed next to Robbie and Rex, leaning over to Rex's ear and whispering, "Oh, and just so you know, I know where you sleep, little guy." Everyone ignored the fact that the puppet was now actually alive thanks to whatever power Robbie may or may not have received. The poor guy was always so unaware that Rex was just a puppet and so used to the idea of having a puppet for a best friend he didn't notice a difference, except that Rex wasn't being so "lazy" and stopped making Robbie do everything for him. "Trina, hey, its me. We've got a bit of a problem... meet us in the parking lot and bring your car keys, we need to get home and..." Tori's eyes widened. Her hand shook, her bottom lip dropped, and she quickly shouted back at her phone, "NO I DON'T WANT to know what you're doing in the bathroom with him right now, just wash your hands and get to the parking lot!" Tori hung up, her cheeks red with disgust. Everyone was staring at her, the guys with amused expressions. "What!?" Tori fiercely exclaimed, flustered, turning around and making sure to sit down facing the opposite direction.